大象传媒

Part of RAF Coastal Command operated from the Shetland Islands, using Catalinas to patrol the northern sea routes looking for U Boats returning to Germany. The crews used to go out on 22 hour missions, searching for and, if possible, sinking any U Boats. As each plane ws ready to leave the crew collected two pigeons from the lofts, just as a fail-safe in case the radios packed up or any emergencies arose. In October 1942, Ted Southern was asked to sustitute for another crew member on a mission, so he was not flying with his own crew, which was always a little unsettling. Towards the end of the flight the weather turned really bad with gales and fog, so the Catalina was not allowed to land at Sullom Voe in the Shetlands, and was directed to Aberdeen, but there the storm conditions were just as bad and the plane was directed to Oban. With petrol running low, and finally running out, the plane was forced to ditch in the Atlantic. There was no radio contact, so the captain put messages as to their location into the leg capsules of each pigeon and sent them off. There were two life rafts, but accidentally one of them drifted off with only two men in it, which left too many men for the other raft, and everyone voted to stay on board the plane.
One of the pigeons never made it home, but White Vision flew 60 miles against the gale force wind with visibility down to about zero, and landed exhausted and with lots of feathers missing. From the message in the capsule, calculating wind speed and tidal drift, the RAF sent out the launch and came across the Catalina after about forty hours. As the last man jumped the gap between the tossing plane and the launch, the plane immediately sank, as though someone or something had been holding it up until that moment. The two men who had drifted off were picked up later, with the result that White Vision was responsible for saving 11 men, and was awarded the Dicken Medal, one of about 33 pigeons to be honoured in this way. White Vision was bred by Fleming Brothers of Motherwell, and she lived until 1953. How many other people can say that they owe their existence to a pigeon? If she had not reached her loft, the crew would have drowned, Ted Southern would not have survived and married my Mum and I wouldn't be here writing this.

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